Malden Mayor Santie sends his weekly diary to the Maldenite.

Congratulations to the Malden Beta Club. They performed very well at their recent national convention in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Congratulations in particular to Samantha Green. She will be the national president of the Beta organization for the upcoming school year. I read in our local newspaper that our Beta members were concerned about competition from a school in South Carolina that is noted for being “really good” at the national level. I don’t know if Malden’s Beta Club is at the dynastic level of the New York Yankees or the Boston Celtics yet, but given Malden’s performance over the last dozen years or so our Beta Club must have other communities saying that the Malden Beta Club is “really good.”

This past Thursday, I ordered that the CPA firm of Thomas, Speight and Noble make an attempt to balance the City of Malden’s checkbook. Some of you who read these weekly messages, if anyone does, may have noted that the weekly financial report that I furnished for almost four years has been missing in recent months. Our Assistant City Clerk and City Treasurer resigned in March. Her position was filled effective June 1st. I had not received a weekly financial report while that position was vacant. The reason for the lack of a report, at least as I understood it, was that with the vacancy in the treasurer’s office there was not time to prepare one. I asked our new treasurer to resume that task when she assumed her office. After three weeks and no report I met with the treasurer and the city administrator and said that I would make the request in writing and an official order if I did not receive a report by last Friday. Failure to provide a weekly balance sheet would be considered insubordination. I was subsequently informed that a balance sheet could not be provided because Malden’s books had not been balanced since April. The end result was my call for the cavalry or at least the CPA’s.

Some of you may remember a similar situation a few years ago. The first statement I heard at that time was that Malden was $300,000 overdrawn at the bank. The remedy was to fire the City Clerk and the Assistant City Clerk/Treasurer. Within a week or so Malden discovered it was not overdrawn, and the $300,000 was in the bank. I apologize to anyone if that is not a reasonably accurate version of what happened at that time.
Our situation today, as I see it, is that we just didn’t keep our books in a timely fashion. Where the fault lies for that I do not know. I tend to subscribe to the “no fault” theory. If a problem arises rather than waste time finding someone to blame just fix the problem. For those of you who like to assign blame I will say it was my fault. The problem happened on my watch.

If you have further questions about your money, we will meet in our regular monthly city council meeting on Monday July 7th at 7:00 P.M. As I have said in this space many times come on down and watch us spend your money wisely or foolishly depending on your point of view.

For the record, I was supplied with the following information this past Friday June 27th.

Balance June 26, 2008 $1,297,108.21
Revenues $55,691.72
Expenses $305,090.17
Balance June 27, 2008 $1,047,709.76

There was no information supplied as to what time frame was covered by the above information.

We were supposed to meet last Monday evening in a city council meeting called to approve the City of Malden’s budget for 2008-2009. Only four city council members showed up. We need a minimum of five to have a quorum and conduct business. We were one brick shy of a load. Please use the space below to insert your thoughts on city council members not showing up for scheduled meetings:
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I had several telephone calls last week from KFVS television. It seems they had received some information from some local person about the high cost of sewer service in the Malden area. The news item became garbled enough that the question to me was, “Why are Malden residents paying $70 a month for sewer bills?” I immediately directed Ryan Tate from KFVS to the sewer district that is immediately to the west of Malden. I believe it is called the Dunklin County Sewer District. The district uses the Malden Board of Public Works for billing and service issues. The sewer district sets its own rates. A young lady who works at my place of employment told me her most recent sewer bill from that district was $66. My most recent sewer bill from the Malden Board of Public Works was $10.72. Please forgive me, but if you live in the Dunklin County Sewer District there might be an issue there worth nosing around in.
The sewer district problems may just be the future. I note that in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch that their Metropolitan Sewer District predicts $100 a month sewer bills in the St. Louis area in order to comply with EPA mandates.
I have lived long enough to remember when Pepsi was called Pepsi-Cola, and it cost a nickel a bottle. I remember when the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company was one of Malden’s largest employers. It’s now called Southeast Missouri State University at Malden. Time changes everything, and Pepsi-Cola to SEMO at Malden may be an example, to continue with the soft drink metaphor of making lemonade from lemons. Maybe the western edge of Malden needs to be in Malden and then again maybe not. $10 or $11 a month for sewer service versus $70 a month might be a good argument for being a part of Malden. The larger question is, what do we who continue to live in this immediate area do to maintain our broader community, our standard of living, and remain a viable place to live? These are tough questions to answer. We need a dialogue between the residents of this part of the world. I think that means we need to talk about where we are and where we are going. A place to start the dialog might be the Malden City Council meeting, if we have a quorum.

maldenite note: I have the honor of sitting on the council representing the voters of Ward III. I asked our city Clerk to verify how many times the council failed to meet because of the lack of quorum within the last two years. She gave me the report the following week at another special called session. I read this information for the record during our meeting on June 23rd.

Malden City Council failed to meet on September, 10, 2007 for a regular meeting because some of the council members went to a meeting with Missouri Municipal League.

The other meeting that did not have a quorum was on April 8, 2008, which was a special called meeting.

Then there was the failed meeting on June 16th. Three times in two years. As part of this council I have been proud of the fact that we have failed so few times to have a meeting in the last three years. Just for the record. Fair is fair. :)

We had our regularly scheduled city council meeting last Monday evening. I invited the members of the Malden Park and Recreation Board and the Malden Airport Board because the discussion at our May meeting had led me to conclude that there were some points of contention between these appointed board members and the elected members of the city council. Apparently, between our May meeting and our June 9th meeting, the spirit of the musical HAIR had appeared in our midst. “The moon was in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned with Mars, peace had filled the planets and love had filled the stars.” The board members received a standing ovation from our city council for a job well done. Whatever the perceived problems were those perceptions disappeared, and everyone was happy. If this truce holds, we may attempt a dialogue with the warring parties of the Middle East .

We did not approve a budget for the fiscal year 2008-2009. Malden is required by the State of Missouri to present a balanced budget by June 30th. We thought we had it. At the last minute, or at least prior to voting on the proposed budget, we discovered we were not balanced but a little tipsy toward the red. The number was about $14,000. We believe we have shaved enough here and found enough there to vote on a budget tomorrow night, June 16. I have called a special session of the city council for 6:00 P.M., and the only topic on the agenda will be the budget.

I have asked our city administrator to meet with his counterpart in Sikeston and any other interested parties about the possibility of a “Trail Across the Boot Heel.” The railroad spur that runs from Malden to Sikeston has been abandoned. The Boot Heel is desperate for economic development. Development can be in the industrial development or an increase in tourism. It will take a joint effort of local entities and the state government, but if we can replicate the Katy Trail in Mid-Missouri and have anything like the success the Katy Trail has enjoyed we can put some money in local pockets. If you are interested and want to be a part of what will be a long process with an unknown outcome, please let me know. We can make it happen if we as community want it.

We have a city council meeting tonight. I have invited the members of the Malden Park and Recreation Committee and the Malden Airport Board to attend. There was some “high talk” at our previous council meeting workshop about these boards and their actions. Most of the talk was I believe just people venting about their concerns that things could be better in Malden. There is little doubt that things could be better. The questions as always are, “What does better look like and how do we make it better?” I hope that we can meet as a group and have a full and candid discussion about our perceived differences are concerns. I believe that we will as usual find that our differences are quite small and our common interests are exactly the same.

Speaking of our appointed city boards, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks and congratulations to the Malden Board of Public Works. The Malden BPW purchases wholesale electricity from the Southwest Power Administration. The BPW has saved the city $208,000 in the first four months of 2008 when compared to its current power purchase cost. If you see James Fair, Clark Duckett, Butch Burrows, or Brad French ask them about your locally owned utility company and thank them for a job well done.

We will take up the city ordinance requiring residency in the city limits of Malden if you want to work for the City of Malden. We passed an ordinance in March requiring residency and the council voted in April to change the rule to “living within thirty miles of Malden.” I can assure you that I will veto the proposed change when we vote on the revised ordinance tonight. Ignoring the pros and cons of residency requirements we should at least demonstrate some ability to stick with a decision once made. Citizens should not believe that laws are lightly and frequently changed depending on the mood du jour.

I suspect there may be some discussion of our dog laws as a result of the attack by a pit bulldog on our humane officer. The defense of the breed is that they are not inherently vicious. They are made vicious by their owners. Pit bulldogs are by nature aggressive. Learned vicious behavior coupled with an aggressive nature is an explosive formula for someone being badly injured.

We will have a Fourth of July fireworks show this year. There was some doubt for a while, but there will be, as John Adams recommended, “Cannon salutes, aerial explosions, and fireworks.” Everyone in Malden needs to say a big THANK YOU to Mr. Steve Hoehn. Steve heard that there was not going to be a fireworks show this year and said, “Why?” When he found out it was because no one wanted the somewhat onerous task of raising the money to pay for the show he went out on his own and raised almost $5,000. When you see the sky light up on Saturday, the fifth of July, you can thank one man for it and the generosity of his fellow citizens who responded when asked for donations.

Steve’s actions are really an example to us all of what it takes to make a community work. A community is only the whole of the many different people who live in it. The City of Malden recently honored Mrs. Wallace for her efforts in cleaning up her neighborhood on Edwards Street. Nobody asked her to do it and nobody made her do it. She saw a problem and decided to do something about it. These are two examples of a member of the community recognizing a problem and on their own doing something about it. There are five thousand of us here and together we can make Malden a better place to live.
I believe we have a budget for 2008-2009. Our city administrator, city clerk, Councilman Crain, Councilwomen Earnheart, and Councilman Beall have a budget to present to the entire city council on June 9th. It’s my understanding that the surplus is thin, around $31,000, but it will meet the state requirement of a balanced budget.
Our humane officer, Mr. Bob Burks, was savagely attacked by a pit bulldog last week. Mr. Burks was called to the scene by a woman afraid because she had seen the dogs loose. Mr. Burks suffered severe injuries while trying to capture the dogs.

In the past the City of Malden has discussed banning pit bulldogs. Many cities have banned them. Many might argue with me, but in my opinion we tend to keep the reins of government in Malden pretty loose. I don’t think Malden will ever ban the dogs.

We had a public hearing on May 22nd to discuss the proposed annexation of the Berry Addition. The annexation election that was scheduled for the past April never happened. Anyway, we will do it all over again in August. The residents of the Berry Addition appear to be split in their opinion over whether or not they would like to be residents of our fair city. Like many of the people who reside close to Malden they use some of our city services such as fire and police and unlike others close to the city limits they also have water, sewer, and electricity to varying degrees. This issue of annexation keeps coming up primarily because of sanitation issues in the Berry Addition raised by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. There is apparently contamination of underground water by existing inadequate septic systems. The Berry Addition is to the City of Malden like the proverbial “red headed stepchild.” I believe that inevitably they will be made a part of the city.

Beginning tomorrow Malden will have a new assistant city clerk and city treasurer. The position has been vacant since March.

May 11, 2008
We will have our regularly scheduled city council meeting tomorrow night. I have only a general notion of what will be on the agenda because I didn’t receive a copy of the proposed agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting.
I assume we will discuss all of the current city contracts and franchises because we are required by our ordinances to do that at our May meeting. I assume we will approve or disapprove the residency requirement for city employees. Hopefully, we will have a final draft of Malden’s emergency preparedness plan, and we can approve or disapprove that plan. Malden is required by the State of Missouri to approve a disaster management plan every six months. The clock ran out on our plan in March. Possibly, the fact that Malden has such difficulty devising a plan may indicate to our citizenry that as I have said before, remember New Orleans and don’t count on you local, state, or federal government to be of much immediate help in the event of a major disaster. There is the old Boy Scout motto BE PREPARED!

I’m also reasonably certain that there will be some discussion of our municipal budget for the fiscal year 2008-2009. The budget must be completed by June 30th, and it must be a balanced budget. The State of Missouri by statute requires a balanced budget be submitted by the City of Malden. Deciding on how to spend your money is always difficult. The money I am talking about is quite literally your money because it is composed of your tax dollars. People frequently say everything is “politics.” Well, politics is really just those of us who are elected by you trying to decide how to divide up the money furnished to us by you and provide the best city government we can. I believe 2008-2009 will be one of the more difficult years to provide everyone with enough money to at least satisfy them somewhat.

I would like to note the death of L. W. “Lew” Maddox. Lew served Malden and Dunklin County for many years in the Missouri Legislature. I know his roots were deep in Clarkton and the Bootheel, and he truly enjoyed the political fray. I think he tried his best. He made a mean bowl of Purple Hull Peas and fair cornbread. He always had a great story to tell. He will be missed.

The financial report is as follows, maybe. I have noticed that there has been no financial report for the last few months. The office of assistant city clerk and city treasurer has been vacant since March. We hope to fill that office soon.

We had a called city council meeting last Thursday evening to discuss the 2008-2009 budget among other things. The meeting did not happen because there was not a quorum. We need five members of the city council present, and we only had four. We will try again this evening.

The budget process is the most time consuming process for us as your city government. It requires something of a crystal ball to gaze into the future and decide what we need for the next year and then what our needs will cost and finally how much money will we have. A case in point is whether or not to buy a new road grader for the streets. We have an old one from the 1960’s. I have been told that it does not serve the purpose. I have been told that its monetary value is low. I have been told we can buy a used one about ten years old for approximately $33,500. That grader is in Michigan, and we would have to get it to Malden. Supposedly what Malden needs is a “small” grader.” A new small grader is approximately $90,000. In the process of creating a 2008-2009 budget, do we buy a used grader? Do we buy a new grader? Do we just stand pat and keep what we have and make do? These are questions to be answered. These are just some of many questions such as salaries, fuel costs, supplies for the various departments, benefits, and that always haunting question of: What if?

I suggested to the city council that we might want to eliminate the four standing committees of the city council. There is a finance and budget committee, a planning and zoning committee, a public safety committee, and a building committee. I believe that only the budget committee met last year. I, as mayor, am supposed to appoint three council members to each committee. I have eight council members. I need twelve committee members. Somebody has to serve on two committees while others are on only one. When I was first elected your mayor there were sixteen standing committees of the Malden City Council. I needed forty-eight people for sixteen committees. I did get the number of committees down to four. I don’t think we need any standing committees. The Malden City Council is not the Unites States House of Representatives with four hundred twenty-seven members. They have a committee on committees. We only have eight members. I believe Malden would be better served if the city council was THE COMMITTEE. We could eliminate double meetings, and everyone who was elected to the city council could be present to do the job they were elected to do.

We met as your city council last Monday night. We met for almost three hours as a matter of fact. There was a large group present to inquire about the status of the senior nutrition center. They specifically wanted to know when it will be built. Our answer was that the building should be completed by this time next year.

The city council voted to reverse itself on the residency requirement for city employees. It only took one month for the folly of that ordinance to manifest itself. The March meeting resulted in a six to one vote to require future employees to live in the City of Malden. There was to be a one year time period in which to achieve residency status. The April meeting resulted in a six to two vote to require future employees to live within thirty miles of Malden. Apparently, we were frightened that if we asked future employees to live in Malden we might offend residents of other area towns, and they would not shop at our Wal-Mart. The “Wal-Mart” theory is the best I could make of it; there may be more to it than that. If there were other possible problems we didn’t wait around to see what they might be. We took Deputy Barney Phife as an example, and we just “nipped it in the bud.” Remember folks as your elected city officials we are all for mom, apple pie, and jobs for the people of Malden. However, you can live between Piggott, Arkansas and Corning, Arkansas and still work for the City of Malden.

I attended a meeting of the planning and zoning committee last Thursday. The decision they made that will have the most immediate impact was to recommend allowing so-called “detail” shops in the commercial district of downtown Malden. I would not have thought such a change was necessary but “detail” shops did not exist as such when the original planning and zoning ordinance was adopted. The board also voted to recommend that private investigators be allowed to office out of their residence. What would Raymond Chandler or Mickey Spillane think?

There will be a called session of the city council this Thursday at 6:00 P.M. We will begin discussion of the 2008-2009 budget. Please join us if you can.

We held our city elections last week.  There will be a new city councilman installed tomorrow night at our regularly scheduled meeting.  My congratulations go to Mr. Larry Crain our new councilman from Ward IV.  My thanks go to Mr. Ronnie Dell who served this community for six years with hard work and dignity.

         It has been said “that success has many parents and failure is an orphan.”  That phrase may best describe the cause of the incredible fact that our attempt to have an annexation election of the Berry Addition is best described as a mess.  As I understand it the ballots allowing the residents of the proposed area to be annexed to vote were never printed.

Why were they not printed?  No one seems to know for sure.  The county election officials place the blame on Malden officials.  Our people tell me they did everything correctly.  The result is an “orphan” or in reality a special election in August.  Malden has lived with the Berry Addition and its real or imaginary faults for many years I suppose we can make it for four more months.

         The new warning sirens are supposed to arrive this week and will be installed as soon as possible.  There will be two of them, and we believe they will be situated to be heard anywhere in Malden.  I’m sure some testing and calibrating will be required.  I hope we never really need them, but I note that Item 10 on tomorrow night’s agenda is emergency management.   It is probably as good a time as any to remind everyone that if you haven’t made plans for yourself and family in the event of a disaster, yesterday wasn’t too soon.

         I mentioned a few weeks ago that I have been watching the HBO Television series JOHN ADAMS.   I noticed on the credits tonight that a great deal of it was apparently filmed in Hungary.  What a comment on our times that a film about one of the founding fathers of the United States of America is made in a foreign country!  I’m sure it was done for purposes of economy.  If so, John Adams, being the frugal Yankee he was, would surely appreciate it.

I mentioned two weeks ago that Malden and the surrounding area were largely spared any damage from the recent floods. However, our neighbors primarily to the west and north were not. I have some involvement with the United Gospel Rescue Mission in Poplar Bluff. I was in their headquarters this past Friday. They operate a thrift store and also provide for the needs of people in compelling circumstances. I have never seen their cupboard so empty. The Rescue Mission has provided food, clothing, and shelter to flood victims. They tell me they are in desperate need of donations to help flood victims literally rebuilding their lives. They particularly need household items such as beds, linens, dishes, and kitchen utensils.

I have not had time to ask Betty Qualls with the Malden Senior Nutrition Center, so I will avail myself of that good woman’s good graces. If anyone has items that they would like to donate to the United Gospel Rescue Mission in Poplar Bluff for the benefit of flood victims, please take them to the nutrition center in Malden. The Rescue Mission will send a truck to pick them up, or I will arrange that they are delivered to Poplar Bluff.

I note with deep regret the death of Bill McMillian. I was in the Malden Rotary Club with Bill for many years. I knew him all my life. He was a kind, good, and generous man. He will be missed by this community.

The Malden City Council will meet a week from tomorrow April 14th. This will be the first meeting after our general election of April 7th. There are city council seats in play and the question of annexation of the Berry Addition. Regardless of the outcome in the election please try and attend the meeting if you can. I extend an invitation not because you need one; your right to attend is guaranteed by law. I invite you to come and participate in your community. As I have said many times, we are going to spend your money wisely or foolishly depending on your point of view. I appreciate your point of view.

Malden was blessed by very good fortune this past week. We did not suffer the tremendous flooding that our neighbors to the west did. I personally saw the damage in Poplar Bluff and Doniphan and to the area around those two communities. The power of a massive amount of fast moving water is almost beyond belief. I stood this morning with some residents of the Doniphan area on what until five days ago had been a road. It is now buried under six or more feet of sand and gravel left there by a flooding Current River. The property damage, while it appears to be relatively small (relative meaning it didn’t belong to you), is still amazing. I saw buildings and parts of buildings and other debris scattered everywhere. Amazed is not the wrong word to use when you can stand on what is now dry ground and see flood debris caught in a tree twenty feet over your head.

The city and county governments of Poplar Bluff and Doniphan along with other government agencies appeared to handle the situation remarkably well. I think they had a contingency plan and were ready. Also, the local people did what we as Americans always seem to do. They just pitched in and said, “What can I do to help?” Many just started on their own doing what they could.
I can’t help but think: Would Malden respond as well? My answer is a resounding, “Yes!” Those of us who live in Malden are pretty average Americans. Being called an average American is not a criticism. Average Americans have accomplished quite a bit in the history of this country. If a disaster hits Malden there is a disaster plan in writing for anyone to examine, but the ultimate safety of our people will depend on the people of Malden and I think that’s a pretty good group to count on.

I would ask the people of Malden to consider that there is a crisis in Malden and it is on going. It is not an immediate natural disaster that we can all rally to fight like a flood. Our crisis has been longer in the making and the fight to solve it will not be won by a few hard days and nights of sandbagging. We need to fight for our town and its economic and social survival. I was startled to hear a resident comment recently that Malden needed to seek a grant for renovation of our downtown and that we should hire a city administrator. A $400,000 renovation of our downtown is set to begin very quickly, and we have had a city administrator since last July. Maybe we don’t get the news out well enough.

My point is, and there is one in here somewhere, is that we as the people of Malden need to jump into our community life. If you don’t like what is going on please show up at our city council meetings and let us know. Please share your ideas for making things better. Please throw a sandbag on the dike to hold back the tide or help man the pumps to pump out what you don’t like.

I have some sports scores to report. Malden played the approximately thirty-fifth annual bird war (game) the last few weeks. The results are in but not yet official. It appears that Malden lost approximately 5,000,000 to twenty-three. The twenty-three birds we eliminated died either of old age or bumping into each other. If you are a baseball fan I’m beginning to believe that Malden versus the birds is sort of like being a Chicago Cubs fan if you’re for Malden. It might be more like the Washington Generals if you’re a follower of the Harlem Globetrotters.

There appears to be no solution to the bird problem except as the experts advise us and that is just wait six weeks and they will go away. I think there might be some virtue in making it a part of our annual budget to invest every year in the so-called “rice cannons.’ I don’t know how many rice cannons we would need to effectively cover all of Malden but surely we could figure it out. The noise from the rice cannons wouldn’t harm the birds but it might make them somebody else’s problem.

I have had several people ask me about the status of the Senior Nutrition Center. Specifically, “When is it going to be built?” The answer to that question is, I hope, in the next year. It will be three years this April that the people of Malden voted a tax to pay for a new Senior Nutrition Center and a police station. The police station was completed in September 2006. We have not turned a spade of dirt on the nutrition center. There have been various and sundry reasons for the delay but most of them are I think bureaucratic in nature. It is now set for completion in June 2009 according to the last information I received. In June 2009 it will have been four years plus since we passed a tax to build the building. It took less than four years to fight World War II.

I hear constantly that everything is about politics when it comes to the City of Malden. The simple answer is that it is absolutely true and always will be. Politics is essentially about how you spend the public’s money. It is about a group of people freely elected, at least in the USA, deciding what to do as a community. I mention this because if you have access to HBO on your television please make an effort to watch their series titled JOHN ADAMS. Guess what? The Declaration of Independence was the result of politics. It was very fascinating politics. Benjamin Franklin was one shrewd backroom dealer and probably would have made a great lobbyist in today’s Washington, D.C. George that we named Washington after is in JOHN ADAMS also. They met in Philadelphia and created a new country and started a revolution.
The Malden City Council meets the second Monday of every month. Come and join us, your ancestors fought a war so that you can. They also passed a Bill of Rights that says you can say what you want.

It appears that we survived the blizzard of “08” this past Friday. It is a fact of our modern times that our media make everything sound like Armageddon. It was a pretty good little snow storm, and the wind did blow some. It was all gone by Saturday. One of the virtues of living in the Missouri Bootheel is that it’s not the upper peninsula of Michigan. I don’t know how people survive where winter starts in October, and it’s a real winter and it lasts until May. If we don’t have a repeat of last year’s 16 degree temperature of April 5 then spring is just around the corner.

I noticed in my collection of material for tomorrow night’s city council meeting that there is an invoice for the purchase of two warning sirens. The invoice is dated February 21. The invoice is for the purchase of two (2) Tempest-121 Omni Directional Sirens. That sounds, pardon the pun, sufficient. The cost per the invoice is $31,107.62, and we have $44,000 budgeted for this project. As I said, spring is just around the corner and with it the tornado season. It is my intention that we sound these sirens when ever the weather service issues a tornado WARNING. There has been some discussion among city officials about the criteria for sounding the warning sirens. There is a school of thought that we should only sound them when Malden officials spot an actual tornado. I would like to defer on the side of caution and take the weather service’s WARNING as our criteria to sound the sirens. The weather service is not trying to build viewership but provide facts. I am told that my personal observation post in the event that the weather watchers are needed is the junction of old Highway 25 with the by-pass. I did attend the weather watchers school, and I have a certificate to prove it!

I was reading Willie Morris’ MY DOG SKIP again the other night and thinking about the weather. Willie wrote about the small town in Mississippi where he grew up. He said: “We lived and died by nature and followed the whims of the timeless clouds. Our people played seven-card stud against God.” I don’t believe you can win if you gamble with God but the new warning sirens properly used might be his way of saying, “Look out!”

I have served as your mayor for almost four years now. One of the things I have tried to accomplish during that period is to clean up Malden. The effort has had mixed success in my opinion. There is, and always will be, opposition to any plan to do anything. Some one will always say there is no problem, or if there is a problem they have a better way of fixing it.

One of the more humorous opponents to cleaning up Malden came to see me a few years ago. I had instructed our code enforcement officer to strictly enforce the city building codes. The gentleman who had received a citation was furious about the “new” laws Malden had passed. I asked to see his citation. I looked in the city ordinance book and the “new” law he was upset about was passed in 1927.

I tell this story because I am constantly being told that “nobody else has building codes or laws like Malden.” With all due respect I can only say that anyone who has that opinion has not done their homework.
The Malden City Council passed a law about two years ago adding one dollar a month to everyone’s trash bill. The purpose of the dollar a month was to provide funds to pay for demolishing the derelict buildings in our town. There is a system in place for deciding when a building is derelict. There are rules for the city to follow and proper notification given to the property owners. If anyone really believes that Malden is somehow different I would like to point them toward the Poplar Bluff Daily American Republic newspaper of February 28, 2008. Specifically, to the front page article captioned “Run-down houses removed from city neighborhoods.” Take the time to read it and discover that Malden is not unique and that we are trying like every other municipality to win the fight against blight.

In the same issue of the Poplar Bluff newspaper I would direct you to the editorial page and the editorial entitled “At last a code with teeth.” The editorial commends the Poplar Bluff city government for “having the grit, the legal means, and more importantly the determination to stand behind their cleanup orders.”

I have said many times that if you don’t like what we are doing as your city government then come on down to city hall the second Monday of each month and give us a piece of your mind. Tell us how you think we can do it better. Maybe, tell us not to do it at all. However, Malden is not any different than comparable communities around us and for those who constantly ask why some towns seem to do better it might not be a bad idea to follow their example in managing our problems.

We had our city council meeting two weeks ago. It lasted a little over three hours which is a little longer than they have been of late. I don’t know what to attribute the length of the meeting to other than everyone was in fine fettle.

The city council did pass an ordinance I have promoted for some time. Effective March 1, 2008 anyone who is hired to work for the City of Malden will have no more than one year to become a resident of the City of Malden. The vote to approve the ordinance was not unanimous. I can’t say why those who voted against it did so. I can foresee some problems in the future when we try to hire people with specific skills or professional licenses. I believe the possible problems can be addressed if and when they occur. The benefits to the people of Malden outweigh any potential difficulties. I have said before that those of us who run for elective offices promise JOBS for the people of Malden. I have also noted that forty-six percent of the payroll checks I sign as mayor go to people who don’t live in Malden. Your local government is constantly trying to attract industry to Malden, trying by any means we can think of to make the local business climate more attractive, and trying to make Malden itself a more attractive place to live. However, your local government, and no other government, can create any job except those that the government itself can offer. In brief, if there is a job available working for the City of Malden I want that job to go to someone who lives in Malden.

I also mentioned that I would like the city council to consider waiving all property taxes of any kind in the area we generally describe as “downtown” Malden. “Downtown” Malden is the area that those of us over a certain age remember as the once thriving part of our town. We will replace the sidewalks, repave the streets, and redo the street lighting in that area this year. I want to make it as attractive as possible to the property owners to fix up their buildings, to look at downtown in a new way, and maybe light a little entrepreneurial fire. Collecting taxes on decaying buildings is senseless. Lessening the burden of the current property owners and business operators in “downtown” Malden makes a lot of sense. If you don’t agree then you need to speak up. We meet the second Monday of every month. Please join us and especially so if you still think of Malden as your home town.

I think it is absolutely impossible to write anything about city government this week without mentioning the tragedy in Kirkwood, Missouri last Thursday. Everyone is probably aware of the event. A man walked into the Kirkwood City Council meeting and began shooting. He killed five city officials and then was killed by Kirkwood police officers.

Speaking for myself now and tomorrow night for the City of Malden I express my deepest condolences to the families of those killed or injured. As always, people seek a reason for these mass killings. They seem to happen frequently in our society. We read about a mall in Omaha, a university in Virginia, a child that kills his parents and siblings. Why? The man in Kirkwood was known as “Cookie” which is about as unthreatening a name as you will hear. He had been something of an athlete in high school. He was well liked by his friends. He was a thorn in the flesh of the City of Kirkwood. Apparently, he was unhappy with the city about code enforcement. If you read the news stories, he did it because, “the city government was against him,” because he was “black” because all the city officials were “white,” because the federal courts were “against him,” because the “system was against him.” The list of reasons is almost endless as you read the news stories. In the end I always have the same feeling about this kind of story whether it is in Blacksburg, Virginia or Omaha, Nebraska or Kirkwood, Missouri. It just seems like the perpetrator did it because . . .

The City of Malden will meet tomorrow to discuss our local government. There are seventeen items on the agenda. The most controversial, I believe, will be an ordinance I suggested some time ago. The ordinance will require that all employees of the City of Malden live within the corporate limits of the City of Malden. Current employees not now living in Malden would of course be “grandfathered.” It is always a common topic in our community about the City of Malden obtaining jobs for its people. Usually, this refers to industrial development. Your city government works hard at industrial development. It is obviously not easy or Malden would be awash in job opportunities as would every other town in the United States. The only jobs the City of Malden can create are positions working for the City of Malden. I sign the payroll checks. Forty-six percent of the checks I sign go to people who do not live in the city limits of Malden. It may sound harsh or to some it may sound fair, but if you want Malden to furnish you a job and a paycheck backed by Malden tax dollars then you need to agree to live in Malden.

There will be a special meeting of the Malden City Council tomorrow night. It is being billed as a planning session. Approximately six months ago Malden made a major change in the way we operate city government. We hired a city administrator. That gentleman has met twice with the city council in planning sessions. We are now asking that the public meet with us and share their thoughts about where Malden should be going and how Malden should get there.

I am intensely curious about how many people will attend our meeting. I think the attendance will be a reflection of how interested or disinterested the average citizen is about our community’s future. The purpose of the meeting is to hear directly from the people about what they want in Malden’s future. If someone attends and wants to complain about code enforcement, animal control, taxes, or just their general unhappiness with the city I will ask them to save that for the regular scheduled city council meetings. I want this meeting to be positive. I want the people who attend to stand up and say what they believe can be done to better our situation and how to accomplish it.

I have noticed over the last four years that there is always some low background noise from the public that “they” don’t want Malden to grow, that “they” don’t try and develop the industrial park to bring jobs to Malden, that “they” run things to suit themselves and not for the benefit of all. I believe this is pure nonsense. It has been my experience that everyone involved in city government works hard for the good of Malden. I will place my faith in the common sense of the ordinary citizen who knows there is no “they” but that there is a lot of hard work and some good luck in achieving positive things in Malden.
We need community involvement. I think we can come together as a community and decide on common goals. We can, as those who came before us in this town, work to achieve those goals. I have said before that this is our home. It is ours to take care of and pass on to the next generation.

We met last Monday night as your city council. The city council meeting itself lasted about two hours. As I mentioned last week Malden did receive approximately $120,000 in license taxes from the cellular telephone companies that do business in our areas. Again, the basis for determining the amount received was about as plain as the moon on a cloudy and foggy night. All I know is that Malden did receive the money or will eventually. There were forty-four telephone companies named as defendants in the lawsuit that brought us this financial windfall. I suspect there were twice that many lawyers give or take a few. The Missouri Municipal League, of which Malden is a member, was one of the primary instigators of the lawsuit. They asked for a five percent fee for their efforts. Malden voted to give them three percent (see the line above about the moon and fog and clouds).

The far weightier issue discussed last Monday was the proposed annexation of the Berry Addition. A public hearing was held at 6:00 PM prior to the city council meeting. I would guess that a majority if not all of the residents of the Berry Addition were present. I believe that I would not be wrong in saying that a majority of the Berry Addition residents are opposed to being annexed into the City of Malden.
If I could sum up the reasons for that opposition it would be I think that they are Americans. Americans as a general rule don’t like government. American history is full of wonderful slogans like New Hampshire’s “Live free or die,” or Maryland’s reference to itself as “The free state of Maryland.” I think that most of the residents of the Berry Addition just don’t want rules made by Malden that they have to follow. I can’t say that I blame them. Governments are about people telling other people what to do. In a democracy we at least get to elect those who make or change the rules.

We are now experiencing Round 2 of annexation concerning the Berry Addition. The whole issue came to the City of Malden because apparently some of the residents of the Berry Addition were not following rules set by the State of Missouri specifically the Department of Natural Resources. Whether they were or were not obeying the rules I do not know. I only know that Malden became involved. Some of the residents are hooked to water and sewer services furnished by the Malden Board of Public Works. Some of the residents say they want these services and others say they couldn’t care less. The problem is that the Berry Addition sets directly across Rogers Street from the City of Malden. Malden is always in their business, and they in ours, like it or not. In addition to sanitation issues we have fire protection and police issues. The Berry Addition uses Malden’s fire and police departments but is not in the city limits. The biggest bugaboo will be code enforcement and that is the issue of rules or no rules.

We will all vote in April. The population of Malden will vote and the residents of the Berry Addition will vote. This democracy thing is great. I love “Live free or die,” but another good one is “Don’t tread on me.”

We, the Malden City Council, will have our first meeting of 2008 tomorrow night. After looking over the posted agenda, it appears that we will do what governments tend to do. We will pass laws that we believe are needed, and we will repeal laws that have apparently out lived their usefulness. The subject of annexation will also be on the table.

Among the ordinances slated for approval are two that may bring Malden some additional money. The city council will either approve or disapprove, and I will bet on approve, ordinances entering into binding agreements with SPRINT and AT&T Mobility. Both companies are in the cell telephone business, and after a wrestling match with the state legislature and the state court system, “we” meaning everybody but us have arrived at a settlement. “We” meaning Malden will now approve an agreement to receive license taxes from these two enormous entities, and we had absolutely nothing to do with deciding the form of the agreement. There’s probably some sort of message in this about how these things are worked out in today’s society, but I will have to agree with Huckleberry Finn, “There was some points about it that plum evaded me.”

This coming Thursday Malden will be receiving a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Agency in the amount of $33,000. The money is to be used for the purchase of new warning sirens for our city. Malden is required to match the grant with $11,000 of its own money. The resulting $44,000 will be enough to purchase two new sirens. Our director of emergency management, his assistant, and our city administrator have been studying where best to place these sirens. We want maximum coverage for a community that stretches approximately four and a half miles north to south and three miles east to west. It is my understanding that the three existing sirens that are still in working order will remain a part of our emergency warning system. It is my hope that progress is being made towards preparation for that inevitable day when the sound of those sirens will not be a test but an actual warning of danger. Please take all the precautions that you can to protect you and yours now and not when you hear that warning siren.

I thanked everyone for Thanksgiving even though one of our city councilmen pointed out to me that I failed to thank the city council. I can assure him it was not deliberate. I appreciate their efforts. I wished everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, a Merry Christmas. I would like to now say a very Happy New Year to my fellow citizens.

2007 disappeared, it seems, overnight. My late father told me that this was going to happen to me as I aged, but in the infinite wisdom of my youth I refused to believe him. Once again he was right. These years keep mounting up, and I now have accumulated sixty-two of them. Years are not like money, and piling up years is not as good as piling up money. Both are usually spent foolishly, and if you are lucky sometimes wisely.
It is my sincere hope that the City of Malden has spent your money wisely in 2007. We certainly spent a lot of it. Most of it went for the necessities of running a small town government. You give it to us in the form of sales taxes, property taxes, various fees and other additions to the public treasury. We, as your city government, try to spend it to the best benefit of Malden. Politics is always about how you spend the public’s money. I always appreciate advice from anyone on spending Malden’s money.

We intend to host a town meeting in January, and I personally hope everyone in Malden shows up like we were holding the Iowa caucus. I want everyone who has an idea to step up and voice it. I want everyone who voices an idea to have a plan for making that idea a reality. In 2008 Malden will enter its 130th year. Malden is a work in progress, and Malden needs all of its people to participate. This is home, folks, and as has been said, “Home is where when you go there they got to let you in.” Your city government not only wants to let you in you have a guaranteed constitutional right to be in. Please let’s all join and be “in” for 2008.

I was scheduled to fly to Kansas City tomorrow. That trip has been cancelled. It seems that the weather report for the west side of Missouri for tomorrow is as our British cousins would say, “Dicey.” I was to have been accompanied by our city administrator and airport director and the three of us were scheduled to meet with the regional Federal Aviation Administration authorities. The purpose of the trip was an attempt to gain the removal of the covenant in Malden’s deed from the United States for 2800 acres of the former air force base. That covenant states that revenue generated on the 2800 acres must be used for the “furtherance of aviation.” That deed was granted in 1948.

I will state unequivocally that my attempt to remove that clause does not mean that I want to sell the airport. I have been asked if that was the purpose. I don’t want to sell it, but I do want the people of Malden to be allowed to run it and benefit from it. The people of Malden are not children. They don’t need “Uncle” or his nephew “Mo” to manage their financial affairs. Malden has an elected city government and an appointed airport board to manage those 2800 acres. If we can’t do it then the FAA should tell us why they don’t think we are competent. If there are people in Malden that don’t believe that our local government can run the 2800 acres to Malden’s advantage then they need to show up at our public meetings and give us the benefit of their advice. Running the 2800 acres according to the FAA for “the benefit of aviation” is running Malden into the ground.
In today’s issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the caption on Bill McClellan’s column is “U.S. Industry: Going Once, Going Twice.” Mr. McClellan was writing about the auction of Federal-Mogul’s property at their former location in St. Louis. The plant which had operated since 1928 has closed and the jobs moved to Mexico and Turkey. Does this sound familiar?

Did the actions of the FAA close the Federal-Mogul plant in Malden? Nope. Did the closing of the Federal-Mogul plant mean that the Federal-Mogul corporate jet no longer flies in and out of the Malden Airport? Yep! Can the FAA see a correlation between economic activity and aviation activity? I suspect that they can, but they have told me that they are not in the economic development business and don’t care if there is development in Malden or not. The FAA takes a very narrow view of what “furtherance of aviation” means.

I believe that the people of Malden should be able to determine their own economic destiny and not be required to go begging for permission to use the single most important asset that we possess. If you don’t agree then let me know and give me your ideas. We are all in this economic boat together and rising water raises all boats.

Maldenite Note:

It would certainly be a welcome addition to see Cottonhill Township become part of Malden. That would create a strong and brighter future for Malden in the fastest possible way. If Mayor Santie is not successful in getting our Industrial park under city control, then perhaps annexation will be the best answer for quick and substantial growth for Malden. – – David Black

There were at least two items of public note last week. There may have been more items of real public interest but only two that I am aware of that caught the public’s attention.

The first item was the annual Christmas Parade. I missed it. I was out of town. I have been accused many times in my life of bearing a distinct resemblance to Santa Claus. I don’t know if the resemblance is a result of the similarity of names or rotund body shape. I missed the parade to avoid any confusion with the real man. Pleas made to me for Christmas gifts and toys will probably go unanswered. I will be at our local Wal-Mart store every Monday and Thursday from 4:00 P.M. until 6:00 P.M. until Christmas collecting gifts for the Salvation Army if anyone feels like playing Santa Claus. I don’t know of a better place to make a charitable donation than the Salvation Army. The money that you donate to the Salvation Army goes where it should.

The second item of local note was the appearance of a large United States Air Force craft flying low over Malden last week. I didn’t see it. I had many reports of the airplane and questions about its reason for passing so low over the former Malden Air Base. I have no answer to that question but have heard several theories.

Personally, I will be flying to Kansas City on December 10th to meet with the regional authorities of the Federal Aviation Administration. I doubt there is a connection to the low flying aircraft over Malden. I will be accompanied to Kansas City by our city administrator and the manager of our airport.
The staff of Senator McCaskill has arranged the trip. Its purpose it to keep pushing the FAA to remove the covenant from the deed granting Malden the 2800 acres of the former Malden Air Base. The covenant restricts all income derived from that 2800 acres to the “furtherance of aviation.
The reality of that covenant is as follows if you want some examples:

1. Every penny that is collected in rent, sale of land, or income from any source derived must be spent on the airport and not in the City of Malden.
2. The FAA takes the position that the airport is a part of the City of Malden. As recently as the 1980’s when I served as Chairman of the Airport Board the board transferred $35,000 a year to the City of Malden in lieu of taxes. The FAA stopped that practice stating that the airport was a part of Malden and there fore shouldn’t have to pay for fire and police protection.
3. The FAA takes the position that the city of Malden must pay for the use of the land the FAA says is a part the City of Malden. Malden paid the airport $25,000 for ten acres of land that we hope the Missouri Department of Transportation will use in the future to build an area maintenance facility. Malden paid $25,000 for land to which we already had a deed in fee simple. The Malden Board of Public Works wanted to erect transmission facilities across airport property. The BPW, owned by the citizens of Malden, had to pay an easement fee to the airport for land owned in fee simple by the citizens of Malden.
4. The money collected by the airport is to be used for the “furtherance of aviation.” My position is that furthering the local economy would go a long way toward furthering aviation. The Bootheel Regional Planning Commission was housed on our local airport until recently. They asked if their office could be remodeled. I called a gentleman named Joe Peska with MODOT who handles these things for the FAA. I asked to use some of the $88,000 the airport had just received from various source to improve the BRPC building. Mr. Peska’s answer was, “No.” We weren’t “furthering aviation.”

These are just a few examples for you to ponder. I believe that the people of this city and the members of its airport board are far more capable of deciding what will “further aviation” and more importantly further Malden than any bureaucrat in either Washington or Kansas City. I actually had an official of the FAA tell me that they needed to protect the Malden Airport. My question to him was, “From whom?” I don’t think the people of Malden qualify as terrorists. I think of the FAA as 19th Century lighthouse keepers trying to justify and save their jobs. The trip to Kansas City should be interesting.

The Thanksgiving holiday is over. I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I apologize if I left anyone off of my thank you list of last week. I had one complaint. I can assure the complainer that the oversight was unintentional and he and his are thanked from the bottom of my heart.
The major news from the City of Malden in the past week was the temporary power outage Friday evening. The outage lasted about and hour and in the great scheme of things if that is the worst that happens to us we will have long and happy lives. The problem is that the outage involved one of the most sacred of American institutions. College football was being play on television! Specifically, Louisiana State University known as the Bayou Bengals and ranked number one in the country was playing the University of Arkansas Razorbacks. The game went into triple overtime. The power went off. I have often mentioned the possibility of a disaster occurring in our community and the need for each individual to be ready for that disaster. How many of you had back up generators?

I don’t know what caused the power outage from a technical standpoint. Because we are Americans and historically don’t place much trust in our government at any level an investigation may be called for. Forty-four years ago President John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. I am told that the majority of American still do not believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I do believe it. However, the power went off in Malden during the LSU and Arkansas game. Who could have caused such as an outrage? I have a conspiracy theory. I know for a cold hard fact that the top management at our Board of Public Works are true Razorback fans. The can call the Hogs with the best of them. Stop by and ask for a demonstration of “Sooie Pig! The management of the BPW would not have stopped power transmission at such a crucial time.

Wherein lies the truth of this outrageous power outage? I will not name names. I know that a key employee of the BPW directly concerned with the generation and distribution of electricity to the City of Malden was born and raised in the State of Kansas. I know the University of Missouri Tigers and the University of Kansas Jayhawks played Saturday night. This game is known as the Border War. Its origins as the Border War are deep in the American Civil War. Jesse and Frank James were Missouri Tigers. The Missouri Tigers burned the University of Kansas to the ground in 1863. The Missouri Tigers torched the Kansas Jayhawks football team in 2007. It is my firm belief that an employee of the PBW who is from Kansas intended to avoid the embarrassment of watching this humiliation of his home state. However, being a native Jayhawk he was confused and picked the wrong night and wrong time to cause the power outage. Case closed and reason for power outage perfectly clear.

I would like to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving Day 2007. I would like to say thanks to Malden for a new police station. Thank you for the certainty of a new senior nutrition center this time next year. Thank you for the renovation of downtown Malden which will begin in early 2008. Thank you for a new elementary gymnasium for the Malden Schools. Thank you for the Malden Schools. I have had the opportunity to tour the local school system recently and I believe they are second to none in this area. I am not just referring to the physical plant which has been completely replaced in the last 19 years but also to our faculty that strive every day to teach and that is not an easy task. Thank you toSoutheast Missouri State University at Malden. SEMO at Malden is truly a miracle in our midst. Thank you to the Bootheel Youth Museum. There are major American cities that do not have a comparable facility and we have the BYM right here in Malden.

Thank you to the people with MAAPS, the Malden Army Airfield Preservation Society, who have given us a quality museum on a shoestring budget but have high hopes for the future. Thank you to the Malden Historical Society for preserving the history of this small town and the richness of live that has been here and still is. Thank you to the service clubs such as the Lions and Kiwanis that continue to support our community with their volunteer efforts of both time and money. A very heartfelt thank you to the many men and women who volunteer their time to serve on the many public boards that make up the government of Malden. Malden could not operate without you. My deepest thank you to the employees of the City of Malden for their efforts at their jobs. In the good old days we would have given you a real turkey for Thanksgiving (remember that?) but some curmudgeon in Jefferson City decided that was to big a thank you. Well. THANK YOU one and all!

Finally, congratulations to Overturf Drug Store for their sixty years of business in Malden. That is a long time to hang in there and things have changed drastically since their start. Ask Joe Mosely who was forty years old when Overturf began and he his still working. I just knew they would have 15 cent chicken salad sandwiches and 25 cent milkshakes for their 60th anniversary but all they gave away was some fancy television that I didn’t win and would not have known how to work. It was also a time machine it had pictures of Joe at twenty.

I attended the 20th Anniversary banquet celebrating twenty years of the Bootheel Education Center now known as Southeast Missouri State University at Malden. The dinner was held this past Friday evening at the campus. The City of Malden was represented by myself, four members of your city council, and our city administrator.

The celebration of the beginning of the BEC was everything it should have been. A deserved tribute was paid to those who had the idea of turning the abandoned Pepsi-Cola plant into an institution of higher learning. I won’t name those who were referred to at the celebration as “the original five.” Those five people had the foresight and the perseverance to raise over one million dollars in scholarship money and the additional money needed to endow classrooms in what was a vacant warehouse. If you live in Malden today and have any appreciation for what the BEC means to this town and this area then take the time to identify these people and personally thank them. I will mention one man, the late John Howell. His widow, Jean Howell was one of those given a special medallion by SEMO in recognition of their efforts.

It was a remarkable evening. There was a video presentation of the history of the education center. I was struck by the imagination and just plain hard work of the founders of the BEC. I wonder if we could do as much as well today. I choose to believe so. All that is needed for Malden to prosper and progress is for the people who live here to believe that we can and do what is necessary. We have a shining example in the creation and growth of what is now Southeast Missouri State University at Malden
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I would also like to express my deepest appreciation on this Veterans Day to all of my fellow citizens who are serving and have served in the United States Armed Forces. I just finished watching the movie SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. The horror of the combat scenes in what is only a movie and the random way in which soldiers are killed and wounded pales in comparison to actual combat. On a personal note I think often of the day I left Malden to enter the United States Army. I rode to St. Louis on the Great Southern Coaches bus line that some of you may remember. The last seat of those buses went all the way across the back and allowed three or more people to sit there as opposed to only two in the other seats. I rode to St. Louis in that last seat with Bruce Nelson and Richard Blake. Bruce was killed in Viet Nam in April of 1968 and never saw his twentieth birthday. Richard was killed in Viet Nam in August of 1969 and was just twenty-one. They are both still in Malden. They are buried in our cemetery. I’m still here, too. Go figure. This Veterans Day, please think of all those you know who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

I had a very busy week. We had a meeting Tuesday night of the Malden Nutrition Center Board, Inc. This is a not-for-profit corporation that was set up by your city government to borrow the money to build the new senior nutrition center. It is the same concept that was used to build the police station. The actual owner of the new Malden Police Station is Malden Capital Improvements, Inc. The City of Malden pays MCI, Inc. approximately $60,000 a year. The $60,000 is used for debt service, to create a fund for any possible future maintenance, and to fund the debt service itself if tax collections should decrease substantially. The same process will be used to pay for the senior nutrition center. The annual payment will be approximately $40,000. The difference is due to a grant that will pay some of the construction cost of the nutrition center. The police station and the nutrition center will each have almost a $1,000,000 price tag. The annual debt service for the two buildings is estimated to be $100,000. The one-fourth cent sales tax passed in 2005 to pay for these buildings generates about $125,000.

Wednesday night was the Halloween Parade. I thought it was a great parade! Thank you to the Kiwanis Club and the Bootheel Youth Museum for their efforts in sponsoring and organizing the parade. Your city council participated, and we were all deeply gratified that no one chunked an egg or tomato our way. I would like to believe that everyone thinks we are doing a great job. However, it may have been that those who intended to throw at us were petrified with fear by the witch in the Malden Board of Public Works bucket truck. I don’t know who dressed up as the witch, but she looked like the real thing to me, and I know who Margaret Hamilton was.
Thursday night there was a public meeting from 5:00 until 7:00 to answer questions about the renovation of downtown Malden scheduled for early 2008. The meeting was well attended, and all the comments I have heard have been positive.

I received a much unexpected surprise and Malden an unexpected gift last week. A gentleman who wishes to remain anonymous brought me a check for $1,000. He stipulated that the money be used for the Malden Fire Department in any way they choose. I will respect his wish to be anonymous, but I would like to use this space to express my gratitude for his very generous gift.

I wrote in last week’s newspaper that we would have a short meeting at our regularly scheduled city council meeting on the 10th. We did. The council meeting consisted of a roll call to establish that there was not a sufficient number of the members of the city council present to conduct business, and those of us who were there adjourned and went home.

There were two council members attending the Missouri Municipal League meeting in Kansas City. Two others were absent. Four members were present and that does not constitute a quorum. I have called a special council meeting for September 17th. The agenda will be the same as last week. Hopefully, we will have everyone in attendance and conduct business.
We did hold a public hearing for comment on the proposed tax levee for next year. The new rate is approximately .68 cents per hundred dollars of assessed valuation. There was no one present for the public hearing. I can assure you that we will continue to spend your tax dollars wisely or foolishly depending on your point of view. We do, however, sincerely appreciate comments from the public and advice. We are all in this together, and Malden needs everyone to take a deep and abiding interest in our community if Malden hopes to survive and prosper.

I had about an hour and a half’s conversation last Thursday with representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration. Congresswoman Emerson’s staff set up a teleconference call. There were, I believe, seven people from the FAA listed as participants. Most of them sat mute. There was a liaison officer between the FAA and the U.S. Congress present. Also, a representative from Congresswoman Emerson’s office in Washington was in on the telephone call. I listened in as did our city administrator. The issue discussed was the one I keep raising with the federal government. They gave us the 2800 acres of land that we still refer to locally as the “airbase” and put a covenant in the deed that allows the FAA to completely control what we do with that 2800 acres. I asked, as I have for three years, “What is the federal interest in that land sixty-two years after World War II?” The answer after one and a half hours of conversation, as nearly as I understood it, is that the FAA needs to protect the airport. I asked, “Protect from whom?” Apparently, the FAA feels the need to protect the airport that the U.S. Congress gave to Malden from the citizens of Malden. I sort of felt like I was in Walt Kelly’s old POGO POSSUM comic strip with the classic line, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

We will have our regularly scheduled city council meeting Monday night. Our new city administrator will be in Kansas City attending the annual conference of the Missouri Municipal League. Mr. Murray, or “Rick” as he prefers to be called, has already attended the Governor’s Conference on Economic Development along with the Malden Board of Public Works manager. I believe it is a positive thing to be able to send our professional managers to state wide meetings and allow them to make contacts that we hope will bring good results in Malden’s future.

The meeting for tomorrow night looks relatively short. We will take up the issue of a fifteen mile per hour speed limit for one alley between Elm and Washington Streets. Personally I think it doesn’t make sense to have a speed limit that applies to only one alley of the who knows how many alleys Malden has. The speed limit now is twenty-five miles per hour unless otherwise posted. As far as I know, we don’t have a problem with high speed accidents in our alleys. I don’t have any knowledge of the police being overwhelmed with calls in regard to speeding in our alleys. I think this may be the classic case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Annexation is on the agenda. In 2005 Malden voted to annex certain properties touching on the city’s boundaries. We can’t seem to get the legalities of annexation settled. Hopefully, our city attorney will shed some light on this issue, and we can get it resolved.
I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. I missed the homecoming festivities. I was in St. Louis attending a sort of homecoming. I met with a group of about twenty friends of forty plus years standing. I missed seeing those people who return to Malden every Labor Day weekend for our homecoming. As one of the fellows I saw in St. Louis says: “I may make some new friends, but I don’t have time to make any more old friends.” I was betwixt and between this year. I hope to be in Malden next Labor Day and see everyone.